


Asra the Fool

by chicago_ruth



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Character Study, Heartbreak, M/M, POV Outsider, Unrequited Love, past Asra/Julian - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 07:04:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17741183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chicago_ruth/pseuds/chicago_ruth
Summary: Asra returns from his travels to an empty home. Unfortunately, he finds his Apprentice in the arms of another.(Julian/Apprentice; unrequited Asra/Apprentice. Male apprentice. Mild references to D/s.)





	Asra the Fool

When Asra returned to Vesuvia, everything was different.

The shop which housed his home was empty, devoid of the life which had called him back again and again. No tea brewing on the stove, no magic sparking in the back room. No warmth at all.

“Where do you think Taylor’s gone now?” Asra asked Faust. She squeezed his arm tighter but didn’t say anything.

Before everything, it might have been worrying. But Asra closed his eyes and felt for his own heart, and found the string that would guide him to its other half. A piece of himself was inside Taylor, and he would always be able to find his heart, his soul, the one person in the world who mattered.

* * *

He almost wished he hadn’t found Taylor. A selfish wish, a wish that was unworthy of him. Ignorance wasn’t bliss, except when it was. And in this matter, he might have preferred ignorance.

He discovered Taylor in a small house in the seedier part of town. He used his magic to look inside; he didn’t sense any danger, but these days one could never be too careful. Yet it was not danger he saw reflected in the small puddle, but happiness.

It was Taylor kissing Ilya, and biting him, and making Ilya hold on to the bed posts and not let go no matter what Taylor did to him. Taylor’s happy, warm smile when he looked at Ilya, and Ilya’s hot, embarrassed flush when he noticed. 

It was Taylor wrapping his lips around Ilya’s cock and pulling away whenever Ilya moved too much. It was Taylor pinching Ilya’s nipples and balls and playing Ilya like a fiddle.

It was the awe and devotion in Ilya’s eyes, and the answering soft kisses.

“Well, Faust. I think I miscalculated.” Asra blinked against the heaviness in his eyes and stepped in the puddle to destroy the spell. Faust slithered up his arm to settle around his neck.

_Love!_ she said, her own pure emotions projected to Asra in an attempt to comfort him.

“Yes, love. I think they love each other, Faust.” He started walking away from the house while rubbing his eyes. “This is my own fault. I should have—”

There was nothing he could have done. He’d tried to tell Taylor of their past, again and again and again, only to have that blow up in his face and cause Taylor misery and pain. His own happiness wasn’t worth seeing Taylor in agony.

His thoughts flitted to Ilya though, and the darkest, most shameful parts of himself rose to the forefront. He could have hurt Ilya more. Done him irreparable harm. Broken him so much that he would never find love with another again, that he could never be satisfied with anybody else. And then he’d never have courted Taylor—

No, that didn’t sound right. Ilya wouldn’t have been the one pursuing. Ilya hinted at what he wanted, blushed and stammered when he was too close to pleasure, but he would never had gone out of his way to tie anybody to him. Ilya was too self-destructive for that.

“So now I mourn my dead love all over again,” Asra said to Faust. “For I was foolish the first time, to think he would abandon the city with me. And I was foolish the second time, to think that he would care for me no matter his memories.”

And he would be foolish another time yet, when he helped Taylor and Ilya resolve the issues that plagued the city. It hurt to think about it, but he knew… he knew he wanted Taylor to be happy above all else.


End file.
